Star Trek: Discovery Producer Says the Ship's Design is a Work in Progress

Star Trek's 50th Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic Con was meant to be a celebration of one of Sci-Fi's longest running franchise's, but instead it merely provided a new source of controversy for its fans. While the on-stage assembly of Trek legends was a wonderful trip down memory lane, a look ahead at what was in store for the future has many Trek fans up in arms.

To cap off the panel, Bryan Fuller revealed a new clip from the upcoming Star Trek TV show, which until now had been simply labeled 'Star Trek 2017'. That very clip didn't just reveal the title of the show, it also gave us our very first look at the Starship that it's named after. Here's where things get muddy. Within moments of the clip going online, a significant portion of the show's fanbase begun to rant about its design.

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The ship appears to blend Klingon elements with those more associated with Starfleet, but it also resembles some Ralph McQuarrie concept art for the unproduced movie, Star Trek: Planet of the Titans. During the Star Trek press junket after the Hall H panel, Bryan Fuller seemed to admit its similarity by saying that it was so similar that they legally couldn't comment on it until they figure some things out.

Then came the intriguing bit. Executive Producer, Heather Kadin, added that there is still a lot of work to do on the finished product.

"I was surprised Bryan didn't say [it wasn't finished footage], actually. I mean, we had three weeks to throw that together.

The concepts of the ship are totally what we're going for, and they'll be honed up until, I think, the day we deliver.

During the panel, Fuller did at least admit the tight timeframe they were working with, but with that in mind it seems slightly odd to feature something that is both crucial to the show, and not even legally squared away. Either way, it looks like the general concept is staying...for now.